All-Star MVPs becoming norm for Kobe in odd-numbered years

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In keeping with his status as a two-time Olympic gold medalist, Kobe Bryant is on an Olympic-style pace as he and his colleagues approach February’s 2013 NBA All-Star Game at Toyota Center.

Just as surely as Winter Olympics follow Summer Olympics follow Winter Olympics every two years, Bryant keeps adding each February to his All-Star Game legacy.

He’s won four All-Star MVP trophies, tying former St. Louis Hawks star Bob Pettit for the league record, and the last three have come in the last three odd-numbered years — 2007 in Las Vegas, 2009 in Phoenix (shared with frenemy Shaquille O’Neal) and 2011 before a home-court audience at the Staples Center in Los Angeles.

2013, presuming Friday’s Mayan calendar signifies the beginning of a new cycle and not the end of it all, is an odd-numbered year as well. And even in the midst of what has been a so-so season for the Lakers, Bryant is looking forward to All-Star Weekend in Houston.

A star among stars

“The All-Star Game has always been fun for me,” he said during the Lakers’ most recent stop in Houston. “There are no double-teams, and you get to play one-on-one with guys who are the best in the world.”

On that front, among others, Bryant has few peers in NBA history, although his All-Star saga has had a couple of surprising twists along with its cyclical successes.

He has averaged 20.8 points in the 13 All-Star Games in which he has played, last season breaking Michael Jordan’s record for career All-Star points with 271. That includes 37 points in his Staples Center star turn two seasons ago, no points in an abbreviated 2008 appearance while suffering from injury, and eight in the 2006 game at Toyota Center that showcased another aspect of Bryant’s All-Star philosophy.

His fans regularly stuff the ballot box on his behalf; entering this season, Bryant had received 24.6 million All-Star votes, exceeding a million in every season save his rookie year of 1997-98 and topping 2 million a year from 2005-06 through 2010-11.

Yet All-Star Weekend has not been uniformly fulfilling. His first MVP award at the 2002 game in his hometown of Philadelphia came a year after Bryant said he hoped the Lakers would “cut their hearts out” during their NBA Finals series against the 76ers.

Bryant had 31 points, five rebounds and five assists in the West’s 135-120 win but was booed by Philly fans when he received the MVP trophy.

“My first game here in the NBA, my rookie year when I came out of high school, they booed me a little bit, too. That really, really hurt, because it was like my homecoming,” he said afterward. “I just look at it as them being die-hard Sixers fans, I guess, being loyal to their team.”

That was the first All-Star Game in which Bryant would be in the spotlight for off-court trappings as well as on-court performances.

In 2004, in the midst of a deteriorating relationship with O’Neal, Bryant blamed L.A. traffic for missing the team photo. He scored 20 points in a game-high 36 minutes, but the MVP award went to O’Neal, who scored 24 off the bench in the West’s 136-132 win.

In 2006, however, Bryant was the perfect guest at the Toyota Center game, totaling eight assists and ceding center stage to Rockets star Tracy McGrady, who had a game-high 36 points. He even deferred to McGrady at crunch time, but McGrady’s potential game-tying shot was blocked by LeBron James, who took home the MVP trophy in the East’s 122-120 victory.

Sharing with Shaq

A year later, Bryant won his second MVP award with 31 points, five rebounds, six assists and six steals to cap the NBA’s notorious weekend in Las Vegas. But in 2008, the NBA required him to play in the game at New Orleans, noting he played for the Lakers in the final game before the All-Star break with what doctors diagnosed as a torn ligament in his right pinky finger. He played only 2:42 and did not score.

His 2009 MVP trophy may have been the most unusual of the four, since he shared it with O’Neal, who was traded from the Lakers after he and Bryant clashed. Bryant had 27 points, and O’Neal, playing before his home fans in Phoenix, had 17 points in just under 11 minutes.

Much was made of their on-court rapprochement, but Bryant dismissed it by saying, “We are not going to go back to the room and watch ‘Steel Magnolias’ or something like that. You know what I’m saying — crying, all that stuff. We had a good time. That’s all.”

Bryant will carry that up-and-down cycle into the 2013 game. He missed the 2010 game with injuries, won his fourth MVP at home in 2011, and last year scored 27 points but also suffered a broken nose and a concussion in a third-quarter collision with Dwyane Wade.

If the pattern holds, Houston fans could be in for a show in February at Toyota Center.

“I love playing in this building,” Bryant said. “It’s a fun building. I grew up with my father (Joe Bryant) playing here in the other arena (The Summit), but this is a beautiful one.”